Mayo man runs into the record books
Mayo AC runner Adrian McNamara ran 143.2 kilometres through the night to mark the arrival of 2024.
While many of you will have enjoyed the revelry of the season and toasted the arrival of 2024 in lavish style, one local athlete marked the occasion by pushing himself to absolute extremes.
Ballindine runner Adrian McNamara secured his place in the Irish Ultra record books when competing in a race that began on December 31, 2023 and ended on January 1, 2024. The Trasna na mBlianta (Across the Years) Ultra competition was hosted by Le Chéile AC on their track at Leixlip.
The twelve-hour run is a form of ultramarathon in which each competitor tries to run as far as possible in twelve hours. The event was held on a 400m track and in what were tough, cold and wet conditions, Adrian ran for 11h58m56s and completed 143.2 kilometres. He was first in over-40s category and in the process, beat the previous twelve hour record of 142.14k achieved by Ed McGroarty from Donegal in the same event last year.
Last September, Adrian competed in a Silver Label IAU competition in Verona, Italy where he completed 117.5k in 11h53m, meaning his that his Leixlip achievement is a remarkable improvement.
It marks a great start to 2024 for the Mayo AC runner.
